My god there's a whole load of rubbish in this thread. The OP especially.
dizlexik wrote:
There were a lot of changes recently and they will have impact on team later. It's too early to say wheater the changes were for better or worse, but as Ferrari they are in crisis. It all went downhill during Dennis leadership in 2000s.
How did it? It's not like anybody could really compete with Ferrari when they had Brawn, Byrne, Todt, Schumacher, unlimited testing and tyres suited specifically to them. And once that era was over, the team won a WDC with Hamilton and would've won a WCC if not for spygate, in which Dennis had no involvement. They fought for drivers titles in 2003 and 2005 too.
But I guess anything other than multiple titles is 'downhill'. It's not like Ferrari and McLaren have a god given right to be up front and are underperforming if they aren't.
F1creep wrote:
Button to me is good enough to drive for McLaren but ideally alongside a very strong driver, like Hamilton/Alonso/Vettel. Hamilton/Button was a great pairing but now without a hard enforcer like Hammo the McLaren lineup looks weak. Right now McLaren has bigger problems than its drivers but I do believe they should go hunting for better drivers by the end of this year because clearly they can do better.
You're absolutely right that McLaren has bigger problems than their drivers.
But it's well known that McLaren see Button as a benchmark. And since Lewis left, they've spent two years trying to find a driver better than him. Perez, for all the promise he has shown, wasn't that driver. Based on what we've seen so far, nor is Magnussen. K-Mag does look like a solid talent, but he is lacking in raw pace compared to Jenson. I know it's early days, but racing drivers generally don't find an extra 0.2 seconds of speed overnight and Magnussen is going to have to do that if he is to lead the team next season. Otherwise, a Magnussen/Vandoorne combination would be a case of the blind leading the blind. In that scenario, McLaren had better hope that Vandoorne is the next Hamilton, otherwise they would seriously regret dumping Jenson.
Quite simply, McLaren need a known quantity in the team next year and that guy has to be either Jenson or Grosjean. We know how good Grosjean is relative to Kimi, and while Kimi has probably declined, he is surely still a top 10 driver. That's really all McLaren can do while they wait for the next Hamilton. I don't think Magnussen is the next Hamilton, he's probably the next Jenson.
Both Ferrari and McLaren changed their team principals. Bosses of both companies talk about fixing their teams. Are they wrong too?